Daily Archives: May 28, 2009

In an obscenity first, a U.S. comic book collector has pleaded guilty to importing and possessing Japanese manga books depicting illustrations of child sex abuse and bestiality.

Christopher Handley, described by his lawyer as a “prolific collector” of manga, pleaded guilty last week to mailing obscene matter, and to “possession of obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children.” Three other counts were dropped in a plea deal with prosecutors.

They do have those kinds of comics in Japan, but not knowing which books they are referring to, it’s hard to know if they were really about kids since they draw a lot of characters to look that way.

The problem here is these comics are not based on anything other than the authors own fictional work. But there is a stupid law that says any drawing that looks like child porn is child porn. The reason it’s stupid is it opens a door which will make it easier to prosecute a lot of things that aren’t even close. It also sets a precedent for worse laws to come.